Will of Fire
by Batmarcus
Summary: With true bravery, Hiruzen Sarutobi makes the sacrifice to help seal the Kyuubi rather than Minato and Kushina allowing them to survive and raise Naruto. How will this shift the story of Naruto's life as we know it? AU. Rated for later violence, and gore and possible lemons (no guarantee) this is a world of ninja after all.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello all! So, as some of you...might know. I am not sure recently I came back to Naruto stories. As I was working on my other ones an idea occurred to me, and this story came out of it as well as character you'll see later on. I liked this idea a lot so I thought to officially make it a story. Special thanks go to, Arch-Daishu for reading this chapter over,and sheltie for helping me flesh out bits of the story as it goes on, and letting me use a character of his later. Go check both of them out! They are AMAZING!**

"Talking"

 **Jutsu**

 _'Thinking'_

 **"Biju Talking"**

 _ **'Biju Thinking'**_

 **So all that said...**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 1

The battle was raging, the night had been quiet almost peaceful. Kushina Uzumaki the current host of the Kyuubi had been about to give birth. With the seal about to be weakened, plans had been made and for a brief time things had seemed well. Hiruzen Sarutobi, was not sure what had happened what he did know was for the past hour or so he had been leading the fight against the Kyuubi to defend the village.

The former Hokage, hadn't seen his successor in that whole time or Kushina. He was understandably worried, which is why he was both relieved and surprised when the blast from the Kyuubi that had been aimed directly at the village vanished and a moment later Minato appeared beside him.

"Thank you for leading the forces Hiruzen-san, sorry I had some other things to deal with." Minato said and Hiruzen noted that Minato looked as if he had been in a serious fight. There were tears in his clothes and cuts on his person.

"Minato, what happpened to you?" The former Hokage asked with serious concern.

"I'll tell you later, right now I have a plan. I'm going to lead the fox away and then I'm going to seal it inside my son using the **Shiki Fūjin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal)** and then the **Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style)**. It should weaken the Fox enough to seal it a little better." He said solemnly.

"No! You can't Minato, if you use that technique you will die." Hiruzen said staring at the younger man.

"It's the only one that would work in a quick enough time, and if I don't so many other people will die instead." Minato said in a resigned way.

"I'm going with you, there has to be another way." The former older Hokage said.

"Your free to come, but there is no other way." Minato said biting his thumb and going through seals as Hiruzen took a stand beside him and he slammed his hand to the ground; **Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)**." He said there was a large puff of smoke and soon he and Hiruzen stood on top of a giant red toad.

The toad stared at the Kyuubi; "Minato what have you gotten me into?" The great Toad demanded.

"Gamabunta, I need you to hold the nine tails down so I can teleport it away. I have a plan." Minato said urgently.

"Right, I'm on it!" The large toad said pouncing towards the monstrous fox. It was something to see to watch the fox and toad fight each other as the Third and Fourth Hokage rode on the toads back providing openings for the toad. Eventually Minato saw the opening he needed.

* * *

There was a large flash of light and the fox and the Kage's were gone. Immediately they reappeared outside what Hiruzen noticed was Minato and Kushina's safe house. He saw everything set up for the sealing with the baby in the center of a circle.

Kushina had erected a barrier using her chakra chains and was holding the Kyuubi back.

"Minato, please don't do this, Naruto needs both his parents." Kushina said seriously sounding both tired and desperate.

"There is no other way and besides Kushina-chan it is the duty of the Hokage to protect the village and it's people even at the cost of their own life." He said.

"He's right, but sometimes it is the duty of the older generation, to ensure that the next generation can carry on." Hiruzen said from behind them as he finished a set of hand signs ending on Snake before clapping his hands; **Shiki Fūjin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal)."** He said.

The shinigami appeared behind Hiruzen as it's hand reached out through Hiruzens body and gripped on the body of the Kyuubi, and seemed to pull it apart separating it's Yin and Yang halves from each other.

"Jiji, no!" Kushina said watching as what was her grandfather in all but blood began to slide to the ground.

"Minato finish it now!" Hiruzen pleaded his voice weakening with each passing second as What remained of the Kyuubi roared in protest it's claw heading towards them and the baby. With every once of strength he could muster the elder Kage stood and leapt in front of the claws as Kushina's chains slowed it's momentum as well but it still managed to pierce through the Sandaime Hokages body but stopped just short of Minato and Kushina.

"Please, Minato finish this." Hiruzen breathed, Minato and Kushina both had tears in their eyes as he nodded and finished the other seal he had prepared; " **Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style)."** He said and the seal closed in around Naruto.

The Kyuubi became a more angry as it was essentially sucked into the child letting out one final roar as it vanished.

For a moment they stood in silence as Naruto wailed and Hiruzens breathing became more labored. Minato rushed over as his predecessor fell to the ground.

"Hiruzen, why?" Minato asked as Hiruzen watched the shinigami pull his soul slowly from his body; "Because, Minato I am an old man, I have seen and done much with my life. You however, are young and strong the village needs it's Hokage, and Naruto deserves to have both his parents." He breathed out.

"Jiji, I...we can never thank you enough." Kushina said in a tired and sad voice tears streaming from her eyes.

"You, don't have to thank me at all, just promise me you'll care for your son, and for the village. That the will of Fire will carry on." Hiruzen said his sould nearly gone from his body.

"It will, I swear to you the village and the will of Fire will continue on." Minato said tears streaming from his own eyes as he stared down at the man.

"That, is all...I can ask and tell Asuma and Hiei , I am sorry I wish I could have been a better father." Hiruzen said as the death god raised it's knife and cut the soul away; He smiled as his last breath left his body and Hiruzen Sarutobi passed from this life on to the next.

For a long while Minato and Kushina sat in silence thinking of all that had happened. After a while Minato stood and carefully picked Kushina and Naruto up before using his; **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)** to take her back to their home in Konoha.

He took them to his and Kushina's room and set them gently down on their bed; he kissed both their foreheads before vanishing again and retrieving Hiruzens body and going not to the center of a the village, but to the Sarutobi compound and laying him down next to the others of his family who had fallen in the battle.

"Thank you Hiruzen." He said before vanishing again.

* * *

 **-Hours Later-**

Minato sat in the meeting room of the shinobi council, he was waiting for all the clan heads to show up he had much to tell them, and some things needed to be decided upon.

Soon enough they all came, trickling in one by one all seeming exhausted not that he could blame them. The night had taken it's toll on them all, it especially broke his heart to see Hiei Sarutobi Hiruzens oldest son come in as the new head of the Sarutobi clan.

Once they were all seated Minato cleared his throat and spoke in a calm and tired voice; "Thank you all for coming; I understand that his has been a long night for us all, we have all suffered losses but there are some things we need to address." He said.

"First of all, while Kushina was giving birth to our son, the seal holding the Kyuubi was weakened. We were prepared for that, but someone attacked us and made sure they Kyuubi got free and used it to attack our home. This person, whoever they were had a sharingan." Minato said and as he expected the room came to life with people glaring at and throwing accusations at the Uchiha clan head Fugaku, who appeared more than a little angry.

Minato though spoke before he could; "ENOUGH!" He shouted and the room went quiet. The usually calm and jovial Hokage so rarely screamed in anger.

"I do not however believe that this man whoever it was, has anything to do with the Uchiha in our village, He may have once been a citizen, or a part of our forces and defected. He could just be a man who somehow obtained and implanted a sharingan. With this in mind I will be working with all of you and especially the Uchiha to catch him. The Uchiha Clan is on of the oldest, and most loyal to our village they deserve the same respect all the clans do, and we would all do well to remember that before throwing these accusations around."

The clan heads who had spoken out of turn looked ashamed, but he understood tensions were high and they all wanted someone to blame, but he would make sure the blame went where it should.

"With that said; Thanks to the sacrifice of Hiruzen Sarutobi, and quick thinking on Kushina and my part we managed to seal the Kyuubi away inside our son Naruto. We would have sealed it back in her, but we didn't have time, and we were not sure her body would take the strain after everything else." He said.

"So the question is, do we tell the civilians?" Fugaku asked.

"I don't think so." Tsume Inuzuka said carefully.

"I'd have to agree with Tsume here, the civilians are all sad, scared, and paranoid. Not to mention that some of our best shinobi even have issues with fully understanding Fuinjutsu." Shibi Aburame said.

"They're right, if told now they might see the boy as nothing more than the Kyuubi it's self, they could mistreat him even if he's the Hokage-sama's son." Inoichi Yamanaka said seriously.

"That's a fair point, therefore at least for now the knowledge will only be given to those of Chunin or above, and classified as an S-Rank secret. Naruto himself will only be told when it is deemed he is ready to know, and from then on who knows will be up to him." Minato said and the other clan heads nodded.

"With all that decided this meeting is dismissed, you may all go rest, tomorrow we have more rebuilding to do." Minato said and they all rose and exited slowly until at last it was just Minato, Fugaku Uchiha, and Hiei Sarutobi.

Minato exhaled as he looked to the two remaining men, eyebrows raised and waiting it was Fugaku who spoke first his tone calm, but grateful seeming; "Thank you for sticking up for me and my clan Hokage-sama, I promise you that your trust will not be misplaced." He said seriously.

Minato smiled a bit tiredly; "It's not trouble, and in cases like this you don't have to be so formal my friend." He said shaking the mans hand.

"We'll start the search for the man tomorrow. For now though, you should head home, I'm sure Mikoto, and Itachi are worried and don't forget little Sasuke and Rei." He said smiling.

Fugaku smiled nodding heading out leaving Minato alone with Hiei. Minato glanced over at the man, he was about Minato's age. He was built a bit taller, and muscular, he had short brown spiky hair, and bright emerald eyes. He was dressed in a full ANBU uniform minus the mask.

"So, can you tell me what happened to my father?" He asked sadly.

Minato sighed and nodded before launching into the story of all that had happened; "I had every intention of making the sacrifice, I wish that I had." He said sadly.

"Don't be sorry, my tou-san wouldn't want that, he was a stubborn old man even when he wasn't old. He did what he thought was the best thing in the situations he was given." Hiei said smiling just a little bit sadly.

"Hiei wanted me to tell you and Asuma that he was sorry, he felt that he should have been a better father to you both." Minato said and Hiei's smile faltered.

"I...I wasn't expecting that. We may not have understood when we were younger, but we know now he was doing things for the good of the village, not because he didn't want to be around us. Tou-San loved us and we love him still. I am disappointed that he won't get to know his Grandson, but we'll tell young Akira all about him when he's older." He said and Minato nodded before yawning.

"Listen at some point we'll all have to get together, you, me, Fugaku and our families. I think all the kids could do with making friends." Minato said and Hiei nodded and headed to the door; "I'd like that." He said smiling a bit bigger than before as he went out the door.

Minato sighed, with things now calm as they were going to get he used his **Hiraishin no Jutsu,** and appeared beside his bed where Kushina and Naruto were both sleeping soundly. Without even changing out of his clothes Minato layed on the other side of Naruto wrapping an arm around them both and fell asleep.

* * *

 **A/N: So that's the first chapter done. Now to answer a few questions; Hiei and his wife (who will be shown later) are kind of cannon and kind of OC. It's been said that Hiruzen had another child and that kid was Konohamaru's parent (because Asuma was not) and that other child was an ANBU captain, so yeah I worked with that, and yes they will have Konohamru later and he is my OC Akira's little brother.**

 **Rei Uchiha was created by sheltie, and is an OC of his. She is Sasuke and Itachi's sister (Sasuke's fraternalish twin).**

 **So yeah ladies and gentlemen that explains everything other than those ones above you won't see many other OC's for a little while though there will be more thye will all be properly developed, or at least to the best of my abilities.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, see you next chapter!**


	2. 12 Years Later

**A/N: Hello all! And welcome to chapter 2 of Will of Fire! First of all...WOW! 43 favorites and 49 follows from chapter 1! This story was more popular than I thought it would be, but thank you all so much for your support!** **This is a fun story to write.**

 **So originally I was going to show a bit of a younger Naruto/other characters. However after thinking about it for a while, it was decided not to do that. The past will be shown, with what has changed in the past through Flashbacks throughout the story in much the same way as it is in cannon. Also, I have noticed that childhood chapters are a bit tricky to get right especially if it will not effect the plot mostly. So first of all special thanks go to sheltie for giving ideas and concepts, as well as his OC Rei Uchiha, to be used in the story! Also thanks to my new co-author MaxGentlman 1. When you are done here go check them both out ASAP!**

 **Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto you all know that. I own the character of Akira Sarutobi, and sheltie owns the character of Rei Uchiha so with all that said.**

 **Enjoy!**

"Talking"

 _'Thinking'_

 **"Biju Talking"**

 _ **'Biju Thinking'**_

 **Jutsu**

* * *

Twelve years. It's so hard to believe that it's been twelve years since that fateful night. The morning sun was coming just over the horizon and beginning to shine its powerful rays upon the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The sun began to shine through the blinds of one bedroom, causing its occupant to groan tiredly and turn over in bed, pulling the covers over his head.

"Naruto, time to get up, dear," came a woman's voice from behind the bedroom's door, only to receive a groan in response.

"Go away, I'm sick," The boy named Naruto said tiredly.

"Oh, well if you're sick, I guess you'll just have to miss graduation today," the woman's voice said.

At those words, Naruto shot up from his pillow with a huge grin on his face.

"I completely forgot, it's graduation day!" He said excitedly, jumping up from his bed and running to the door and opening it, revealing a woman slightly taller than the blonde-haired boy.

She had dark red hair that was done into a high pony tail and dark violet eyes and lite skin, and wore a smile on her face, this was his mother Kushina Uzumaki.

Kushina was dressed in black hip hugging ANBU pants covered with shin guards, a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark red obi it hugged her impressive bust well. Her blouse was closed revealed just a little of her cleavage. Over top of this she wore a grey sleeveless trench coat. Her Hiate was wrapped around he right bicep, and her obi held a sword at her hip.

"Hello, Naru-chan." She said as he hugged her.

"Hi mom! I can't believe that today is the day finally, I get to be a shinobi just like you and dad!" He said excitedly.

"Yes, you do, but you aren't going to be a smelly shinobi. Now go on get in the shower and we'll have some new clothes waiting for when you get out." She said and he nodded sprinting away down the hall.

"You know, we have to tell him after graduation, he deserves to know." Kushina said as she entered her own room to get the shinobi gear she and Minato had purchased for Naruto and found the Hokage/Her husband coming out of their bathroom.

"I know, it's time and he's ready to know, I just hope he'll understand for now though lets focus on his graduation. Did he master the Kage Bushin (Shadow Clone) Jutsu?" Minato asked.

"Of course he took to it quickly I was impressed, but he is our son." Kushina said laying out the clothes on Naruto's bed and smiling.

Minato smiled as they went into the kitchen, twenty minutes later Naruto entered as Kushina set out breakfast ramen for them all. He was dressed in his new gear.

He wore black shinobi pants with dark orange lines down the center and strapped sandals, finger-less black gloves with metal plating on the back, and a short sleeved black shirt with dark orange lines running from the neck down to the ends of the sleeves, as well as a dark orange vest with the red swirl on the back similar to the design found on the back of Konoha flak jackets. His vest was reversible the lining being black. He had a weapons pouch on his belt and shuriken holster strapped to his right leg.

"So, I look pretty great right?" He asked sitting down.

"You look like a true shinobi, Naruto," Minato said with a proud smile upon looking at his son.

Sitting down to eat his breakfast, Naruto scarfed down his ramen and drank a glass of water before getting up from the table and heading for the door.

"Bye Mom, bye Dad, I'll tell you how graduation went when I get home," He said quickly before opening and closing the door behind him and heading off down the street. The two parents smiled at their hyperactive son's energy.

* * *

After turning a corner, Naruto decided to take a quicker route to the academy as he channeled his Chakra into his feet and leaped into the air, landing on the roof of one of the buildings. He quickly broke into a sprint as he came to the edge of the building and leaped to the next rooftop. He couldn't help but cheer as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, gaining the attention of civilians below, knowing just who it was whooping and hollering.

They all smiled as he passed. Just as he was approaching the academy, there were two puffs of smoke in front of him. He just managed to stop short as the smoke cleared and two people were revealed.

The first was a girl about his age and an inch or so taller, she had lite skin and long brown hair done into a ponytail with her bangs framing either side of her face. Then she wore a long sleeved black shirt beneath a sleeveless dark blue qipao dress that reached to about the middle of her thighs and had a small Uchiha crest on the front over her heart and a larger one on the back and a red sash around her waist and lite gold pouch held to her hip by a band that held her ninja tools Then she had fishnet armor on her feet that reach to just under her knee's then standard bluish black shinobi sandals on her feet.

The second was a boy, also his age and a few inches taller than both of them, had long straight white hair done into a ponytail that fell to the middle of his back and is done up with a red band. He wore a crimson sleeveless kimono style shirt, over a black long sleeved ninja mesh shirt, he had black full fingered gloves with armor plating on the backs and fingers. The kimono shirt was held in place by a dark grey pouched shinobi belt. Beneath that he wore black pants, and white boots. Over top of all this he wears a Navy Blue hooded jacket with a white fur collar with the Uzu swirl on the shoulders and his clans symbol on the back.

These two were Rei Uchiha and Akira Sarutobi, and though Naruto had many friends, these two were easily his best ones.

"Do you really have to run across the rooftops yelling, Naruto?" Rei asked smiling.

"Of course he does, he's so short how will people see him otherwise?" Akira asked as they picked up and started to run again.

"HEY, I'M NOT SHORT! I JUST HAVEN'T HIT MY GROWTH SPURT YET!" Naruto shouted, red in the face as a tick mark appeared on his head.

"Maybe you never will, what will you do if you stay this short forever?" Akira asked, smirking as Naruto growled and jumped at him as Akira dodged sticking his tongue out and picking up speed.

"GET BACK HERE!" Naruto shouted, chasing him.

"Boys," Rei giggled and chased after them.

* * *

She got to the academy and was not at all surprised to find her two friends rolling around in a dust cloud every now and then a fist or foot would stick out. She heard an amused laugh and turned to see her two brothers Sasuke and Itachi watching as well.

Sasuke stood at her height, and had her same skin tone, and onyx eyes. He had spiky black hair with a blue tint to it. Sasuke's hair hung over his face as wore a navy blue, short-sleeved shirt with a high collar, white shorts, and, white arm warmers. He had a shuriken holster on his right leg.

Itachi had onyx eyes under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with centre-parted bangs that extended to his chin. He wore a pair of black pants and gloves, with a white form-fitting shirt underneath. Over this he wore a black, high-collared, long sleeve mantle that split down the lower half and had the Uchiha crest on the back. Around his waist he wore a simple, navy blue obi and a belt.

"Hey, Itachi-nee, you made it!" Rei said hugging both her brothers and smiling as Akira and Naruto both stood and smiled at them.

"Yes, you didn't think I'd miss seeing you both off to your last day of school did you? Now, I expect you to graduate, and become amazing shinobi, all of you." He said glancing at all four of the kids in front of him, who nodded.

"Of course, I can't take over Hokage from my dad if I don't graduate!" Naruto said as if it were obvious.

"And, I'm never going to get as good as you if I stop here." Sasuke said as Akira and Rei just nodded.

"I look forward to that fight one day, for now though you'd better hurry, I think the bells about to ring." He said smiling as they all checked the time nodding before they ran into the building.

Itachi smiled to himself, as he left for the Hokage Tower, he needed to speak to the man in charge about a change in position, _'what better time than now after all?'_ He thought before **Suishining** away.

* * *

The group of children entered the building and quickly made it to their classroom with Naruto, Akira, and Rei all finding their seats. As they did, the door opened to show a pair of girls coming in.

One had fair skin, blue eyes, and long pale-blonde hair worn in a ponytail, with bangs framing the right side of her face. She wore a purple outfit consisting of a high-collared blouse and matching apron skirt.

The other girl of had fair skin, had green eyes, and pink cherry blossom hair. She wore a pink dress and green bike shorts.

"Thanks for getting the door, Sakura," The blonde girl said, entering the class room.

"No problem, Ino," The pink-haired girl said with a smile as she came inside as well.

Their names were Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno.

Upon seeing who entered the classroom, time seemed to slow as Naruto gazed upon Sakura. His face went red and he couldn't help but smile at her beauty. He may only be twelve years old, but he knew he was in love.

"H-hey, Sakura-chan," Naruto stammered, a bit nervously as they approached. Sakura smiled, a very slight tinge of pink hitting her cheeks at the affectionate suffix he attached to her name.

"Hey Naruto-kun, you excited for graduation?" She asked happily, to his pleasure using a similar suffix for him.

"Yeah, of course I am. After all this time, we finally get to be shinobi and I take my first step to becoming Hokage. " Naruto said.

"Exactly, and I will finally get to be a konoichi." She said and the two hit it off as Ino slyly approached Akira, batting her blue eyes and smiling in as flirtatious a way as possible.

"Hello, Akira-kun! It's so good to see you! Looking great by the way." She said, taking a seat in front of him and sitting so she was facing him and just slightly showing off her figure.

"Ino-chan, looking beautiful as always," Akira said winking at her and making her blush a bit deeper; "Well thank you, Akira-kun you really think I look beautiful?" She asked hopefully inching a little closer to him as he smiled and leaned towards her as well.

"Of course I do, you always look amazing." He said brushing her hair out of her face so he could see into both her eyes clearly internally Ino was jumping for joy; _'He thinks I'm beautiful!'_ She thought a chibi version of herself dancing with joy as she spoke calmly as she could; "Really? Because you know, for a while now I've been wanting to ask..." She started just as Iruka-sensi walked in.

"Okay class, eyes up front so we can get this day started!" He said and Akira looked away from her to their teacher; "We'll have to continue this at another time." He said and Ino slumped as she faced forwards.

 _'Every time!'_ She thought as the chibi version of her in her head punched and Iruka statue. This was true, every time she came close to finally asking Akira out something would interrupt. She didn't know that this often happened by Akira's own design, he just wasn't sure how he felt about Ino or any girl right now so he often made sure that things never got a chance to escalate.

"Alright class, as you all probably know, today is graduation day," Iruka said, "So in a little while we'll be interviewing each of you to see if you've mastered the clone jutsu. We expect to see great things from each of you."

 _'Ha, piece of cake,'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Soon, the students were led to and lined-up outside a room. Each student went in one at a time and performed the basic clone technique in front of three judges. After a few students, it came to be Rei's turn.

Performing the hand signs, she created a nearly identical clone of herself, though the ponytail was noticeably shorter. However, despite this somewhat obvious difference, she passed with a passing score. Coming out of the room, she found Akira was next in line.

"You're up, Akira-kun," She said with a smirk and a wink.

Smirking back at her, Akira entered the room and stood before the judges. He performed the hand signs perfectly and created a perfect clone of himself, right down to the pores on his skin. The teachers were very happy with the clone and gave him an above average score. Leaving the room, Akira saw Naruto was up next in line.

"You're up, short stuff," He said with a smirk, causing Naruto to grumble in annoyance at Akira calling him short for the second time that day.

He grumbled, but stopped in front of Iruka and Mizuki and took a deep breath; "Alright Naruto this part of the test is simple, you just need to create one clone to pass." Iruka said seriously knowing that Naruto had steruggled with making his chakra small enough to do a basic clone.

"Does it have to be a standard clone?" Naruto asked carefully.

"Well, no I suppose any clone would do." Iruka said not sure really where Naruto was going with this one as the young blonde smirked and held his hands up in a cross handsign; " **Kage Bushin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)** " He said and soon enough there were three solid Naruto's standing in front of the teachers desk all smiling.

"Solid clones! Very impressive Naruto."Iruka said smiling at him and awarding him high marks. Mizuki did as well but inside he was seething just a little

"I passed with flying colors!" Naruto said approaching his friends and holding out his headband in success; "Told you I could! I can't wait to tell Ka-san and Tau-San!" He siad smiling as they left the hall for lunch.

* * *

After the academy let out, Naruto and his friends made their way to Naruto's house. At lunch, they made plans to go out to celebrate their graduation to Genin. Meeting with Kushina and Minato, the five of them headed out into town and stopped at a ramen shop.

Naruto was scarfing down his dinner with a wide grin on his face, constantly stopping to put his hand to his headband, still not believing he managed to get it.

"You should be proud, Naruto. From now on, that headband is the symbol of your rank as ninja," Minato said with a smile to his son, "All three of you should be proud."

"Oh trust us, we are, Lord Hokage," Akira said, taking a sip from his water.

"Now me and Sasuke are on our way to being like Itachi," Rei said with a pump of her fist.

"You are shinobi all your own and I'm sure that Itachi, and all your family are proud of all of you." Kushina said smiling as they smiled at all three of the kids who smiled back and continued eating until Akira's father showed up dressed in full ANBU uniform and rushed over to them; "Lord Hokage we have a problem! Mizuki has stolen the sacred scroll!" Hiei said.

"What!? No, we can't let him get away with that scroll it contains all of our villages secret techniques, if it were to fall into the wrong hands I don't even want to think about what might happen. Spread the word! I want every shinobi available on the hunt for Mizuki, we need to stop him!" Minato said.

Hiei nodded and then turned to his son ruffling his white hair; "I am so proud of you son." He said smiling before vanishing in a puff of smoke as Minato turned to the three kids who hadn't risen yet.

"Didn't you three hear me? I said I wanted every shinobi looking for Mizuki. That means you three now too." He said and they sprang to their feet nodding; "Yes Lord Hokage!' They said together before leaping into the tree's.

"We'll have to tell him after this whole mess is over." Kushina said and Minato nodded as they headed in after the kids and the others.

* * *

 **-With Naruto, Rei, and Akira-**

The three newly minted Genin had been jumping through the tree's for a few minutes keeping their eyes and ears open.

"I can't believe Mizuki-sensei would betray the village, he was always so nice and helpful." Rei said looking around.

"Yeah, well it's usually the people you never think it would be." Akira commented.

As they leaped from branch to branch, Rei suddenly perked up.

"What's up, Rei?" Naruto asked.

"I sense someone's Chakra not far from where we are; about a hundred meters east of here," She said.

"Alright, lead the way, Rei," Akira said as Rei took the lead and the two boys followed close behind her.

She lead them through the woods and then stopped holding out her arms so the other two would. Pressing a finger to her lips and pointing ahead to a clearing. They saw Mizuki leaning against a small cabin a large scroll open at his feet.

She gave a few hand signals they learned in the academy and the two boys split into separate directions and pulled out the signal flares they had been given for when they located Mizuki. At a wave of her fingers both boys set off their flares which soared into the air and burst in a shower of red sparks.

At the same time they all leapt out from the tree's and surrounded him; "It's over Mizuki the others will be here any minute, hand over the scroll and this doesn't have to escalate." Akira said as they each took a Taijutsu stance drawing Kunai.

Mizuki smirked and then started laughing; "You three may be talented, but do you really think you stand a chance against me? Your just fresh out of the academy Genin, you can't touch me, especially with my new trick." He said making a cross handsign and suddenly creating at least twenty solid clones of himself.

"Now, you three still want to press your luck?" They all asked together.

"Not really like we have a lot of oprions, and plus you think your special?" Naruto asked making the smae handsign and evening the odds.

"This'll be fun, I get to beat the little demon multiple times in a night they all said before charging the three Genin.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," One of the Narutos said as the two armies of clones charged at each other and collided together. The clones came together in a clash of kunai and fists as Rei and Akira watched from the sidelines for a moment before looking to one another.

"This is going to be fun," Akira said as Rei gave a small nod and a grin before they both yelled and charged into the fray.

Akira was going through Mizuki clones like a knife through butter, cutting through them with a kunai and breaking the noses of a few of the clones before they disappeared in a puff of smoke. Some clones tried to dog pile him, but he leaped into the air before doing a few hand signs.

 **"Fire style! Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fireball Technique)"** Akira yelled, putting his hand to his mouth in the shape of a funnel and breathing out hard, blowing a massive fireball at the pile of clones.

"Why do people always try the dog pile thing? It never works." Akira shrugged staring at the burnt grass before leaping back into the fight. Rei dodged and slashed through the Mizuki clones throwing several kunai and hitting a few in the head making them vanish.

After a few minutes of pitched battle it became apparent to Mizuki that he and his clones were losing, but the Naruto's were vanishing as well and the other two were getting too tired.

With that he hatched a plan and went through several hand signs and after a few more minutes of fighting there were only four people and a scroll left in the clearing, which was good.

The problem was that there were now two Naruto's; "Oh come on Mizuki can't you at least lose like a man?" One of the Naruto's asked as Akira and Rei looked on.

"Who're you calling Mizuki?! You're Mizuki!" The other Naruto yelled.

"Don't listen to him, guys! He's trying to trick you!"

"Don't listen to him! He's the imposter!"

Needless to say, this whole situation was confusing for the two Genin. They looked at the two Naruto's, trying their hardest to tell which was the real one.

"Got any ideas, Rei?" Akira asked.

"No. If I had Sharingan I could see through his trick, but I haven't triggered it yet," Rei said, growing more worried by the minute.

"Come on, guys, you know me better than anyone," One of the Naruto's said.

Suddenly, an idea came to Akira as a smile grew on his face.

"You're right, we do know you best. So the best way to do that is to ask the two of you questions that only the real Naruto would know."

"That's perfect! That'll expose the traitor." They both said together and the other two rolled their eyes as Akira leaned into Rei and whispered his plan and she smiled and nodded as they turned to theothers.

"Okay, first question: What's Naruto's favorite kind of ramen?"Rei asked

"Miso ramen with roasted pork fillet!" They both said.

"Right." She said smirking.

"What is Naruto's favorite color?" Akira asked

"Orange, duh." They both said.

"Correct." He said smirking as well and then they both turned to the Naruto's and smirked again; "Last question, what's two hundred and eighty five divided by 2?" They both asked.

"One hundred and forty two point five zero." One said.

"Wrong answer," Akira said, quickly going for his holster and throwing a kunai at the Naruto and stabbing him in the leg.

Yelling in pain, the Naruto fell to the ground and clutched at his now bleeding leg before going up in a puff of smoke and being replaced by Mizuki.

"I don't get it, I got it right, didn't I?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"You may have gotten the question right," Akira started.

"But you should've known that Naruto is terrible at math," Rei finished.

"Yeah!" The real Naruto exclaimed before he processed what they had said, "Hey!"

"You're great at other things Naruto, just math was never your strong suit." Akira said shrugging as he tied Mizukis hands behind his back and the ANBU arriv3d along with Minato.

"You kids caught him?" Minato asked smiling at them.

"Yeah we did because we are amazing!" Rei said looping an arm around the shoulders of each of her best friends.

"Well, I mean sure we can all agree on that." Itachi said as he arrived with the other parents and they all smiled at the three.

"Mizuki, you're under arrest for the theft of the Sacred Scroll," Minato stated as the ANBU restrained him.

"Hold on for a sec," Naruto said, walking up to Mizuki, "Why did you do it, Mizuki-sensei?" He asked.

"Why? I'll tell you why! I refuse to be second best compared to a demon boy like you!" He yelled angrily.

"Demon boy? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Mizuki, that's enough," Minato ordered.

"No, he deserves to know what a monster he is!" Mizuki yelled, "You kids know the Nine-Tailed Fox that attacked our village all those years ago?! It was sealed inside him! HE'S the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

* * *

They all stood there stunned before Minato punched the man hard in the face, knocking him out as the ANBU dragged the man away; "What, what did he mean Tau-san? I'm not the Nine-Tailed Fox you and the Third killed it years ago right?" Naruto asked somewhat desperately and sadly.

"No, souchi, you aren't the Fox, but your mother and I do have some explaining to do to you, I guess to all of you now. Come with us and we can get this out of the way alright?" He asked carefully and the three of them nodded and turned and followed the Hokage away and to the Hokage Tower where Kushina was waiting looking worried.

They went up to the Hokage's office, and as they entered Minato spoke; "This is private, please leave us." Minato said and two ANBU slipped out from the shadows and vanished with a silent sushin. Minato sighed and took in a breath before he started.

"Alright so, what you need to understand is this; "The Kyuubi, was...is a being of basically pure chakra and as such can't really be killed, none of the tailed beasts can, they will die but in a few years they'll just reemerge. It is at least partly for this reason that they have been sealed away into people of various villages, these people are then known as jinchūriki." He said.

"Okay, so waht are you saying here?" Naruto asked.

"Years ago during the Foxes attack on our home Hiruzen, your father, and I used a combination of sealing techniques to seal the Fox away, it had previously been sealed within me, but at the time we were unsure if my body could handle the strain of resealing it. So it was decided that we should seal it away in someone else and we thought the best option was you, so you could use it's power; later to face a threat we feel is coming, and so the village would be safe." Kushina said.

"So, Mizuki, he was right? I really am the Fox?" Naruto asked tears coming to his eyes before his mother pulled him into a hug; "Naru-chan, listen to me, you are not the fox and you never will be. You are it's jailer, you keep it contained so that it cannot harm the world at large. By your own existence, you are a hero." She said

"Why me though, why did you seal it in me?" He asked.

"Because, Naruto, as Hokage, it's my duty to protect the village no matter what the cost. Also, I couldn't ask this of someone else, if I wasn't willing to do it myself. We made sure no one spoke of it outside the rank of Chunin or above , we were going to tell you later today, bu that didn't happen. From now on it'll be up to you to decide if you want people told." He said.

"Are, you two going to stick by me?" Naruto asked worriedly turning to his best friends, Akira was especially concerning after all it was his Grandfather who had died in the sealing.

To the surprise of both boys, Rei was the one who stepped forward and spoke.

"You've been our friend since we were kids, Naruto. The way I see it, you being the Fox's container changes nothing," She said before walking forward and hugging the blonde-haired boy, making him blush a bit.

Seeing this and hearing what she said, Akira couldn't help but smile as he stepped forward and hugged his friends in a group hug.

Naruto couldn't help but tear up at his friends' act as he hugged them back.

Minato and Kushina smiled at the children's act of friendship. With friends like that, maybe things will turn out alright.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright that's chapter 2 knocked out! NowI kn9ow a few of you may be wondering a lot. Like some characters seem different from how they were and more importantly probably WTF the Uchiha are still alive!? As I said above we will explain it all in due time as the story progresses. For now thank you all so much for reading, see you next time!**


	3. New Teams and Test

**A/N: Hello all and welcome to chapter 3! So Before we start here I want to address one thing. Some feel that Naruto needs to have some more focus. To that I say, he will be he gets a bit more focus this chapter. He gets more next chapter and in chapters to come as well. We have been giving a bit more focus to the OC's last chapter and a bit in this one because they needed to be built from the ground up as they are all new characters to the story. So yeah that's all really other than special thanks to my co-author and friend MaxGentleman1! And to my friend and fellow writer Sheltie aka the inventor of Rei Uchiha. Also my co-author found some errors in this chapter so I edited and re uploaded it.**

"Talking"

 **Jutsu**

 _'Thinking'_

" **Biju Talking"**

 _ **'Biju Thinking'**_

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto, though that would be great if we did!**

* * *

Chapter 3

It had been a few days since the Mizuki incident as they had all decided to call it. And it was finally the day for team Assignments, Naruto was nearly giddy with excitement. Despite what he had learned that day, he felt normal, nad had also chosen not to tell any of his other friends, not yet anyway.

He was very excited for the Team Assignments though, he could have any sensei or teammates. He was hoping to maybe get on a team with Sakura, or his best friends, or maybe even Sasuke, and hopefully he'd get Kakashi as a sensei As he approached the school he found Akira talking to his little brother before he entered school.

"Yes, Konohamaru you need to go home you can't go in with me your classes start later this is my team assignment day." He said gently.

"Aww, come on, big brother," The little boy complained.

"No ifs, ands, or buts, now go home," Akira ordered, causing Konohamaru to start sulking. Seeing this, Akira gave a small smile as he knelt down to his level, "Hey, if you go home I promise to teach you how to properly wield a kunai."

The little boy's eyes lit up at this offer, "You really mean it?!"

"Yep, just don't tell mom, okay?" Akira said with a smile.

Konohamaru leaped into his brother's arms and gave him a big hug, "You're the best, big bro!"

"I try." He said as Konohamaru jumped down and saw Naruto, smiling he gave him a hug too; "Good luck you guys!" He said running off towards his home.

* * *

"Are you really going to teach him to use a Kunai properly?" Naruto asked as they entered the building and headed down the hall; "Yeah so long as he doesn't tell mom, dad taught me at his age, and I swear she nearly killed him."

They entered the classroom and headed for seats near the back of the room, Rei was already waiting there in a deep conversation with Sakura and Ino regarding different forms of Taijutsu and which to take up outside Academy style.

As they entered Ino smiled over at Akira who gave her a casual wave and a smile.

Before anyone could say anything more Iruka entered, and called for silence they all became quiet as he spoke; "Alright my former students, today you will all be sorted into Teams of three under one Jonin, the sensei will show up and take you away. When I call out your names please sit beside your new Teammates. "

All the teams were assigned their respective members. The teams were as followed: Team 8 consisted of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, and his dog Akamaru. Team 10 was Chōji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka. Team 7 included Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sai Shimura. And finally, Team 9 consisted of none other than Naruto Uzumaki, Rei Uchiha, and Akira Sarutobi.

Naruto had a feeling that this might've had something to do with them being the ones to catch Mizuki, not that he was complaining at all he was happy with who his teammates were, now they just had to wait for who their sensei was. Iruka finished mapping out, the teams and started mapping out the sensei's.

Naruto was not paying much attention until it came to his friends and their sensei's; "Team 7; Sensei Kakashi Hatake." Iruka said and Naruto huffed, Kakashi had been his fathers student, and he was still a very close family friend, but he supposed there was nothing he could do about that. Sasuke seemed less than thrilled, but didn't say anything.

"Team 8 sensei; Kurenai Yuhi." Iruka said and this time Rei slumped just slightly, there was a slight lack of konoichi in the Leaf and she had wanted a chance to work a bit closer with one of them.

"Team 9 sensei; Itachi Uchiha." Iruka said and that got the best reaction yet. All the members of Team 9 rose to their feet pumping their fists in the air in triumph Sasuke stood a look of jealousy and outrage on his face; "Why do they get Itachi?" He demanded.

"The teams are put together by a combination of your skills, and abilities, the opinion of the other teachers, and the Jonin's own abilities as well. These things all factored into the sorting of the teams and your sensei's.

Though Sasuke didn't like the answer, he accepted it, sitting back down with a huff of breath.

"And finally, Team 10 will have Asuma Sarutobi as their sensei," Iruka said, finishing off the list, "Your sensei's shall arrive here in a few minutes to take you away for your first day of training. With that, I bid you all farewell and good luck," Iruka said before picking up his clipboard and a few papers and leaving the classroom.

Sure enough, after about five minutes, Team 8's sensei showed up and took the three newly appointed Genin away. Shortly after that, Team 10's sensei showed up and did the same only with his students. Minutes passed by and no one else came to the door to pick-up the remaining six Genin.

* * *

Five minutes soon turned to ten minutes, which quickly turned to twenty, and still nothing. While the six of them were waiting, they began to have a conversation.

"Huh, you know usually Itachi isn't late, I wonder what's going on?" Rei asked carefully a little worried for her brother/sensei.

"I'm sure it's nothing really he's probably with Kakashi, and Kakashi's is late for almost everything has been for year's. " Naruto said factually, and it was true he couldn't really recall a time that Kakashi had been on time.

"I hope so. " Rei said.

"Wait, really is he always this late?" Sakura asked and Naruto nodded; "Unfortunately, and you might want to remember that for the future. He's still really good though, great even." He said as Sakura nodded a bit glumly.

"Great so you all get Itachi, and we get a lazy late guy?" Sasuke demanded.

"I think we'll all be alright, we just need to be patient. " Akira said getting annoyed by Sasukes attitude and wanting to stop an argument before it started he knew Naruto saw Kakashi as a big brother of sorts.

At that very moment, the door slid open and in walked an older man with silver hair and wearing a cover over his mouth and his headband over his left eye. Next to him was Itachi.

"Good morning students," The man with silver hair said pleasantly, "As I'm sure you all are aware, I am Kakashi Hatake. Pardon mine and Itachi's tardiness, we were caught up on the Path of Life."

"I just wanted to see how you'd react to my being late," Itachi said with a chuckle.

"Are you serious!? We've been waiting here for over half-an-hour!" Rei complained, earning a chuckle from her older brother.

"Well consider it a kind of lesson one, things will not always go according to plan when you expect it to, now my team please follow me." Itachi said as the three of them rose and followed him out just in time to hear Kakashi say; "My team meet me on the roof." He said before he Sushined away; "Good luck!" Naruto called out for them.

Itachi, smiled and lead them all out and over to the top of the village gate where he had them all sit across from him; "Alright, now then I've known all three of you for your whole lives, but being your sensei puts me in a different position than I have ever been in before, your lives are in my hands." He said seriously and they all nodded.

"As long as you understand the seriousness of being shinobi and where we find ourselves now then things should be fine, but I need to know that you will take this seriously." Itachi said.

They all nodded saying; "Yes Sensei!"

He smiled; "Alright then, now let me ask you all, what is your dream, why did you want to become shinobi in the first place?" Itachi asked staring at them each. Not surprisingly it was Naruto who spoke up first.

"Well, I guess I wanted to become a shinobi so that I could be Hokage aone day after Tou-san finally decides to step down, I want to help protect everyone in the village, it's my home and I also want to be respected." Naruto said making them all smile, asRei went next.

"I want to be a powerful, konoichi, there are, not a lot of us who rise to prominence I want to prove that we can be strong too, and I want to be as good as you one day." Rei admitted and Itachi felt some pride as he smiled again Akira spoke up.

"I...I want to be as good as people say my Grandfather was, he was the second man to be hailed as the Kami no Shinobi (God of Ninja), and he had no Kekkai Genkai (Bloodline Trait) I'd like to take that mantle one day, and also to become one of the few to be a Sanin." He said

At hearing each of his student dreams, Itachi put a hand to his chin and rubbed it in thought with a small smile.

'Interesting. Very interesting," He thought to himself as he opened his eyes and spoke.

"Alright then," He began, "Tomorrow morning, I want you all to meet me by the lake in the woods. Try to be on time," He said.

"We will if you are," Akira said with a smirk, which Itachi returned.

"I make no promises," He said before Sushining, leaving the three teammates alone.

* * *

 **-The Next Morning, Lakeside-**

The three teammates met by the lakeside at seven o'clock the next morning; the break of dawn. For someone like Naruto, this was way too early.

"Ugh, why did he make us get up this early?" Naruto complained.

"Maybe it's a part of the test to keep us pretty tired, to make things a bit m...moooore challenging." Rei said yawning in the middle of her sentence and a still tired Akira simply yawned and nodded.

"Right you are Rei-chan." Itachi said appearing high in a tree above them; "The world doesn't wait for you to be ready especially in the life of Shinobi, you need to learn to be ready at all times. Today I will be testing your brains and brawn, to decided if you get to be Genin" Itachi said.

"Well, yeah I guess, but Itachi sensei, why do we need to have a test!? I thought we had already passed that?" Naruto asked stunned into waking; "Well I can tell you why, but you all will not want to hear the answer." Itachi warned.

"Oh come on, you already dropped the big news you might as well tell us what the reason is." Akira said seriously and Rei nodded.

"Fine then, here's the real trusth of the situation of your whole graduating class only twelve of the thirty of you will actually get to become Genin the rest will be sent right back to the academy to try again next year." Itachi said.

"What?! No way!" Naruto exclaimed.

"You can't be serious, Itachi!" Akira said.

"Told you you wouldn't like the answer," Itachi said, looking away from his students.

Hearing this news, that only twelve of the graduating students could become Genin, gave Rei pause before she steeled herself and said what was on her mind, "Well if only twelve of us can pass into Genin, than I'll make it so the three of us are part of that twelve."

Hearing this, her friends' hearts grew bold at her words.

"Same with me," Akira said.

"Same here! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed confidently.

Seeing his students and hearing their words, a smile grew on Itachi's face, "Very well then. Your first test shall be one of brains. Your scenario is this: You stand at the bank of a river with a small rowboat and with you is a dog, a live chicken, and a bag of grain. You have to get all three across by taking one item across at a time."

"And we can't leave some items behind because the dog would eat the chicken and the chicken would eat the grain. Come on, Itachi-sensei, we all know this riddle," Akira said.

"What riddle?" Itachi asked before pointing over to the lake and showing a dog, a live chicken, and a bag of grain sitting next to a small rowboat.

"The test is simple you need to get all three across the lake, without one eating the other only one of you can row the boat and the other two have to watch the three things, but you are not allowed to take the other two across, all three need to cross in the boat only." Itachi said. smirking as they all stared at the three things.

The Dog was about the size of Akamaru maybe just a bit bigger, with amber colored fur and bright green eyes. It trotted over and wolfed at them before turning and growling at the chicken and making a run for it.

The three of them chased after it determined not to let a dogs appitite be the reason they went back to the academy. Akira managed to catch it in his jacket and turned to the other two; "Okay so we need to find a way to get everything across, which will be easier said than done becasue this is an Inuzuka trained dog, and that means eventually I may need a new jacket." He said.

"Right so, Naruto with Akira dealing with the puppy I think you should be the one rowing things across and I'll watch over the chicken. Rei said.

"Okay, but we need to figure out what order to take them across in." Naruto pointed out.

The three of them went silent as they began to think the scenario out in their heads. It was a minute before Akira snapped his fingers and had a eureka moment.

"Alright, so here's the plan," He began as Naruto and Rei listened up.

First, Naruto took the chicken across. Then he came back, took the dog across, switched it for the chicken, and came back across to switch it out for the grain. Taking it across and dropping it off, he went back and brought the chicken over with Akira and Rei meeting him on the other side of the lake.

After placing the chicken down on the ground, Itachi appeared from a puff of smoke before his three students with a small smile on his face.

"Congratulations. You've all successfully solved the first test," He said.

"Hooray," Naruto said tiredly before collapsing to the ground in a heap, tired from his back and forth rowing.

"Okay, we'll let Naruto rest for a bit before we move on tothe second and final part of your test meet me in training ground three in an hour." He said before vanishing again. Naruto huffed and sat up.

"Great another test." He sighed.

"Yeah I can't believe they all just lied to us about graduating like that." Akira sighed; "I can I mean the life of a shinobi is secrets and deception after all, maybe it's all a part of the final test." She sighed as they all sat down the dog trotted over and barked at them.

"Yes your a good dog, now why not go dig a hole or something until it's time to go?" Naruto asked. It barked at him before coming over to Akira and whimpering needingly; "I don't have anything for you."He said.

It whimpered again and jumped into his lap before curling up and yawning; "Hey come on your cute and all, but I need you to get off." He said, but the dog didn't move it just licked his hand.

"Aw, he likes you!" Rei said scratching the dog behind it's ears.

"Yeah I got that, but it needs to eave me alone for the next test." Akira said; "Looks like the dog disagree's with you." Naruto said chuckling as the dog seemed to nod it's head and lay back in Akira's lap.

"Fine I guess you can stick with me, but just for the day then you go back to the Inuzuka kennels." He said and the dog just barked as he caved and scratched it behind the ears.

* * *

After their hour of rest, Naruto, Akira, and Rei made their way to Training Ground 3 to meet up with Itachi. When they arrived at the training ground, they found Itachi nowhere to be seen.

"Don't tell me he's pulling this stunt again," Naruto said, annoyed.

"And what stunt would that be?" Came Itachi's voice from behind them, causing the three Genin to jump in surprise.

"Ah! Seriously, you wanna give us a heart attack!?" Naruto exclaimed, clutching his heart.

"Seriously, Itachi-nee, give us some warning next time!" Rei yelled.

"When we're on duty, it's Itachi-sensei Rei and why, an enemy won't give you a polite warning before they attack. As I said you need to learn to be ready at all times, it's what I am trying to teach you." He said as they all huffed and he chuckled.

"Now, this final test is one of strategy and brawn, the test is simple. You all have to land a single hit on my chest before the timer goes off, you will have let's say four hours to land that one hit on me. Now, if you don't not only will you fail, but I will tie you to a tree and make you watch as I eat my lunch, then I'll come and get you in time for dinner." He said

"Oh, that's just cruel!" Rei said as her stomach growled a bit loudly as did the other two's it had been a long while since breakfast after all.

"Well then, how about a bit of extra incentive if you all win, I'll treat you all to lunch and I have weapons for each of you." He said casually as they all perked up a bit more as Itachi leaned against a tree; "Sound like a deal?" He asked.

"Of course it's a deal, one misely hit, and that's it!?Please, you don't stand a chance Itachi-sensei, just say go and we've got this!" Naruto said confidently, as he took a ready stance.

 _'Only you Naruto.'_ Rei thought fondly as she and Akira took their own stances.

"Alright then the test begins...now!" Itachi said waving his hand and vanishing at the same time as they all had leapt at him causing them to land in a heap of limbs.

"Okay so that didn't work and now we lost him...not exactly off to a terrific start here are we?" Rei asked as they stood up dusting themseleves off and staring around to try and find him.

"Yeah, but I'll get him and graduate!" Naruto said heading towards the woods; "Wait! Naturo we need to..." Akira started, but Naruto vanishedc into the tree's; "Strategize." He he finished with a sigh.

"Do we chase after and stop him?" Rei asked seriously.

"Not yet, no we stay back and observe and after he loses to Itachi then maybe he'll be willing to listen to us." Akira shrugged; "Plus it could be kind of entertaining." Rei admitted smiling as they chased after Naruto.

* * *

 **-With Naruto-**

Naruto was leaping through the tree's looking around until he came across another large clearing in the tree's to find Itachi just leaning and against a tree staring at the clouds, not looking at all concerned with anything.

Naruto jumped out of the tree's and landed across from him; "This time I've got you Itachi-Sensei!" Naruto.

"You know Naruto part of being a shinobi is that your supposed to be sneaky." Itachi said casually continuing to stare at the clouds high in the sky; "Come on, look at me and fight!" Naruto grumbled.

Sighing with slight annoyance, Itachi did as Naruto asked and got into a fighting stance, "As you wish, Naruto," He said.

They stood there silently for a moment before Naruto made a run at Itachi, his hands making the crossed hand sign.

 **"Kage Bushin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique)"** Naruto yelled as five other hims appeared and charged at Itachi.

Itachi merely smiled at this before closing his eyes and reopening them, and springing into action of his own.

Just as the clones were upon him, he quickly dodged out of the way of them. One tried to tag him in the chest, but Itachi dodged out of the way before grabbing the clone's arm and swung him around, slamming him into a tree trunk, causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke.

At that moment, Akira and Rei arrived on the scene, watching the fight from the tree tops.

"Looks like Naruto found him," Akira said casually.

"This isn't going to end well for Naruto is it?" Akira asked.

"I very much doubt it, but he's going to really try, and we can observe." She shrugged.

* * *

 **-Naruto and Itachi-**

Naruto's other clones tried leaping at Itachi from either side of Itachi simply twisted grabbing one by the wrist and swinging it into the other sending both flying backwards and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Spinning in a small cirle Itachi threw a kunai and it hit one of the other Naruto's that vanished in another smoke cloud.

"Charging in wildly, without thinking things through was not exactly your best strategy Naruto. WIth the way Rei talks about you when it comes to pranks I must admit I expected better from you." Itachi said smiling casually as Naruto growled at him and charged in before smirking as two other Naruto emerged from the woods behind him and grabbed Itachi from behind in a full nelso and by the feet.

"Haha, you were right I distracted you with those other clones and had one sneak in behind you, now I graduate!" Naruto said jumping up into the air and going to kick Itach in the stomach only for Itachi to turn into a log and hit Naruto's foot hard.

"Yeow!" Naruto yelped as he fell to the ground, clutching his now bruised foot, "A substitution technique?!"

Suddenly, Itachi appeared right in front of him and put his index finger to Naruto's forehead.

"It'll take more than that for you to tag me, Naruto," He said simply, pushing him backwards so he was flat on the ground, "Try thinking outside the box," He said before disappearing once again.

Steaming at Itachi's cavalier attitude, Naruto shook off his minor injury and tried to focus in on exactly which way Itachi went. Sensing chakra to the west, Naruto pinpointed it before heading off in that direction.

Or he would have been headed in that direction had Rei not grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him back causing him to fall flat on his ass; "hey what are you doing!? I need to catch up or I am going to fail!" Naruto said.

"No, we all need to catch up and tag him or we all, fail did you forget that?" She asked seriously and Naruto looked down feeling just slightly ashamed; "Right, sorry I guess I charged in little too quick huh?" He asked and the other two nodded.

"Okay, so then what exactly do we do? He's too tough for any of us to fight alone at least from a skill level standpoint, we aren't ready." Naruto said standing up in the circle.

"Of course we can't, but you need to remember we aren't trying to defeat him here. We are just trying to get one hit each and we really need to work together and come up with a plan." Rei said.

They all thought, quietly and then Naruto snapped his fingers; "Guys I think I've got it."

They leaned in and together the three of them came up with a plan and set it in motion for the perfect time, now they had to lure Itachi into it and that would be the trickiest part.

"Ready?" Naruto asked and the other two nodded and together they set off to find Itachi.

* * *

 **-With Itachi-**

Itachi was getting a bit worried time was running low and since Naruto's first attack, he hadn't heard them at all, 'It will be very dissapointing if some of the top students can't pass still maybe they weren't ready.' He thought to himself and no sooner had he thought it when he heard a roaring sound from his left.

 **'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)'** Akira thought breathing fire towards his sensei who just barely managed to avoid the attack only to find a net of ninja wire surrounding him and tangling him up, with Kunai headed towards him. from the front and back. Thinking quickly he pulled a kunai from his weapons pouch he channeled chakra into it and sliced through the wire.

Freeing himself from the wire, he moved with a great amount of speed he started to dodge and knock the shuriken away. As the last one fell beside him Rei's foot slammed into his gut knocking him backwards.

Sent reeling from the blow, Itachi wasn't able to avoid the hard kick from behind that came from Akira. Sent tripping forward, he did his best to recover as he heard Naruto yell loudly. Recovering, he looked up to see Naruto heading right for him before leaping into the air feet first.

Just before Naruto struck Itachi in the chest, Itachi raised both his hands, making a T with them.

"Time!" He exclaimed, confusing Naruto before Itachi caught him by the foot mid-flight, causing him to fall on his back.

"What do you mean 'time', Itachi-Sensei?" Naruto asked as he tried to get back to his feet.

To answer his question, Itachi pointed a finger in the direction of a stump where the timer had run out of time.

"No, I failed, but I was so close, you mean I have to go back to the academy!?" Naruto gasped staring at Itachi in shock and sadness.

"You can't do that, a lot of this was Naruto's strategy!" Rei said as Akira nodded; "Yeah and plus, we all worked so hard to set this up, and we did so well you have to give us another chance at this." Akira said.

"I can't do that, but.." Itachi started before Rei cut him off; "Then I'm going back too, we're friends." She said.

"Yeah, and we are team we tried this together and we failed this together, so we all need to go back." Akira said keeping his arms folded as all three of them glared at Itachi who smilied; "I was going to say, that O can't do that, but it hardly matters really because you all pass." He said.

They all stared at him stunned; "We passed?" Naruto asked.

"What are you talking about, Itachi-Sensei?" Akira asked, confused.

"I'm saying you all passed the real test," Itachi began to explain, "You see, the test I assigned to you was merely a cover story for the true test I had for the three of you."

"And what was the real test?" Rei asked.

"Simple. The real test was teamwork; to test how well you all could work as a team and how well you can come up with a strategy together," Itachi explained.

"It didn't matter whether or not you managed to tag me, if you didn't work together than you would've failed anyway."

"So then, are you saying..." Rei trailed off a little.

"Yes, you all pass with flying colors and as I promised I will buy you all lunch and, if you'd like I can give you all the weapons I will be training you in now or after lunch." He offered.

Before any of them could say anything all of their stomachs growled, and Itachi laughed; "I think the weapons can wait a while, come on we'll get Barbeque." He said smiling; "Aw, I wanted ramen!" Naruto said.

"You always want Ramen, you have to balance out your diet or you'll never grow, and you'll get fat, and not fat like muscles fat, fat like fat, fat." Akira said seriously as they followed Itachi into the village.

"Yeah, Naruto, you'll end up like Choji pleasantly plump if you're not careful," Rei said with a small giggle.

Naruto couldn't help but shudder at the thought of being that fat, "Remind me to do some sit-ups after lunch," He said with a depressed frown.

Everyone else couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's expense as they made their way away from the training ground. Before they made it to far however, they heard a small bark and turned around to see the puppy from the first test run up to them and stop at Akira's feet, looking up at him with its tongue hanging out.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about you," Akira said.

"Okay, you guys go and I'll go return this little guy to the Inuzuka pound and meet you guys there." He said picking up the puppy who practically leapt into his arms and heading off to the pound.

* * *

 **-Inuzuka pound-**

Akira arrived with the pup now seated in his arms barking happily, as he went inside he found Hana Inuzuka tending to all the dogs and she turned when the bell above the door rang smiling when she saew Akira holding the pup; "Ah, there's the pup I was hoping that I wasn't going to have to wake Itachi over the head next time I saw him,Thanks for bringing the little guy back AKira-kun." She said smiling at him.

Hana Inuzuka was a very pretty girl she was eighteen and had long brown hair which she wore in a ponytail with two locks of hair framing her face over her large, black eyes. She also wore a light shade of lipstick and has the traditional fang-like tattoos of the Inuzuka clan on both of her cheeks, in addition to a tattoo on her upper right arm that resembles a flower. Hana was wearing the beige Konoha medic uniform,like she always did while on duty here.

Akira blushed at the praise from her as he handed her over the puppy, or rather he tried to. When Hana went to take it the dog whimpered and bit into AKira's jacket sleeve.

"Come on little guy, you've got to go home." He said gently as she gave a small tug, but the dog whimpered again and looked at him pleadingly; "I think the dogs gotten attached to you." Hana said smiling

"Rather literally it seems," Akira said, trying his best to pry the dog from his arm without hurting it or him. The dog simply continued to whimper as it clung to Akira's arm.

This action seemed to give Hana pause as she observed the dog's action until she remembered an old saying in her clan.

"You know," She began, getting Akira's attention, "There's an old saying in my clan that states that a person doesn't choose the dog, but rather the dog chooses its master," She explained.

"What are you saying?" Akira asked now staring at the dog dangling from his arm; "I'm saying why don't you keep him? Ninken can be incredibly useful and loyal creatures, it's why my clan works with them so much. They can be taught many different techniques, they are great trackers and strategists and some of them can even learn to speak human." She said as he stopped shaking and brought the dog closer.

"Plus, he clearly likes you, and they can be great home pets as well so why not?" She asked as Akira thought on it remembering all that Kiba's dog could do and then looked at the dog who he set on the ground and knelt in front of; "Well, do you really want to come home with me?" He asked.

The pup barked happily and jumped at his face licking him; "Okay, okay you can come with me...Kaneda, but if you go to the bathroom in the house I'm bringing you back here got it?" He asked and the dog licked his face again.

* * *

 **-Restaurant-**

Naruto, Rei, and Itachi sat in a booth at a barbecue restaurant, Naruto scarfing down some short ribs off the grill as soon as they were done.

"Save some for the rest of us, Naruto," Rei said.

"Excuse me, but were you the one who had to row a boat back and forth across a lake?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

"He has a point there, Rei-chan," Itachi said with a smile.

"So I'm allowed to call you Itachi-nee now?" Rei asked.

"Well we're not on duty, so of course."

"Thank you Itachi-nee." She said as Akira finally arrived and sat beside Naruto as the puppy from earlier jumped up and settled itself into his lap staring at them all.

"Hey weren't you going to return him to the Inuzuka's? Akira-kun?" Rei asked smiling as the dog curled up on his lap and gave a little yawn; "Well, I was, but he sort of became attached to me, Hana thinks he liked my scent from being stuck in my jacket. Anyway he wouldn't let me go, and she suggested that I keep him, so I named him Kaneda."

"I like the name, but do you think your mom will be okay with him?" Itachi asked.

"As long as I take care of him, it ahould be fine." He said

"Either way, grab yourself some chopsticks and have some short ribs, you all deserve it after how well you all did today," Itachi said.

"Thanks, Itachi-Sensei," Akira said, grabbing a pair of chopsticks and digging into the meal, giving a few bits to Kaneda from time to time.

After the group finished their meal, they left the restaurant with their bellies full.

"Oh man, I'm gonna sleep good tonight!" Naruto said with a wide grin.

"Good, you'll all need a good night's rest tonight, I have more to teach you tomorrow morning," Itachi said, "Meet me at Training Ground 3 for the next stage of your training."

"Yes, Itachi-Sensei," The three young ninja said before making their ways home. All in all they agreed that the day had been long, but satisfying.

Itachi smiled to himself as he walked home with Rei, he had carefully observed them each and knew where they need to improve, but all in all his team had a lot of potential, he just had to find a way to bring it out.

* * *

 **A/N: So that's the latest chapter! We hope you liked the story so far! Also fir those who saw we gave Sai a last name, a very specific last name that will come into play later on down the line.**

 **Next Time: Weapons, and a New Mission!**


	4. Battle in the Mist

**A/N: Hi everybody! We welcome you to chapter 4! It'll be a really fun one we had fun writing it. Sorry thos took us a while we work on other stories (together and alone) and we took breaks because life and all. Anyway we hope you like the chapter!**

"Talking"

 _'Thinking'_

 **Jutsu**

 **Biju Talking**

 _ **'Biju Thinking'**_

 **Disclaimer: Nope we still have no rights to Naruto. We also don't own Rai Uchiha she is owned by friend and fellow fanfic author sheltie go check him and MaxGentlman 1 out after this! We do own Akira Sarutobi.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **-Mission Office, Konoha-**

In the mission office, Minato was handing out missions to the graduating Genin teams and while most were taking it well, two teams were not and of course one of the teams was his sons the other Kakashi's; "Come on Tau-san! we aren't going to get any better if all you have us doing is catching cats and picking weeds!" Naruto huffed.

"Wait a minute we deserve a higher ranking mission more than they do Hokage-sama!" Sasuke said indignantly.

"Both of you calm down, we will see what your sensi's think before I decide to give either of your teams a shot at something a little more challenging." Minato said looking to Kakashi and Itachi as they stepped up.

"I'm sure you can find a somewhat harder task for both our students, Lord Hokage," Kakashi said.

"Well there was a job that came in recently. The job involves protecting a bridge-builder from possible bandit attacks," Minato said, taking out a small scroll from his desk.

"Sounds good. We'll be taking that," Itachi said, reaching for it only for Kakashi to grab the Uchiha by the wrist.

"And what do you think you're doing?" Kakashi asked.

"I just thought this job was beneath such a great shinobi such as yourself, Kakashi," Itachi said with a smirk.

Kakashi was silent for a moment before he finally spoke, "You know the funny thing is I know you're playing me, but you're right. However, it's not beneath my students, so I'll be taking the job."

"That's great that you think that, but my students require a more hands on experience so I'll be taking the mission." Itachi said kindly but firmly as he pulled at the scroll as the two teams behind them started to argue.

"Enough! All of you be quite!" Minato said and they all fell silent staring at him as he cleared his throat; "How about this, you can both go on the mission if your willing to take a little less pay that is." Minato offered.

"Well, that could work if you'd be willing?" Itachi asdked looking to Kakaksh i who nodded; "Very well can we meet the client?"

"Of course, Mr. Tazuna, you can come in now!" Minato called and in walked an older man he was a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. He also carried a towel around his neck and wore a pointed hat on his head. In his hands he held a bottle of alcohol. He looked at them all a look of scrutiny and mild disbelief on his face.

"Seriously, these runts are going to protect me Hokage-sama? They seem too weak to defend even a cat, let alone me especially the small blonde one." He said and naruto's face went from normal to red in an instant, before he could speak up Sakura walked over and covered his mouth shaking her head.

"I assure you sir, these squads will be more than enough to protect you, they are the best of our most recent graduating class." Minato said and Tazuna nodded grumbling.

"Team, go gather anything you feel you will need for the journey and meet us at the front gate in two hours understood?" Itachi asked and his team nodded as they vanished with Sushins

Two hours later, both Team 7 and Team 9 met with Kakashi, Itachi, and Tazuna at the entrance to the village.

"Glad to see that you all made it on time," Kakashi said with a smile beneath his mask.

"We could say the same for you too, Kakashi-Sensei," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"I still feel like this isn't enough," Tazuna said with a tinge of foreboding in his voice.

"Are you kidding?!" Naruto asked with a big smile, "Bandits would have enough trouble fighting one team of ninja. With two teams, plus Kakashi- and Itachi-Sensei, bandits wouldn't dare attack you! Believe it!"

"Right, well I guess we'll see then won't we?" Tazuna said disbelieving as they set of with Naruto grumbling at the old mans attitude the whole way. As they walked for a few hours Kakashi and Itachi noticed something odd, a puddle in the middle of the road, this wouldn't have been so odd, but it had not rained in weeks.

They exchanged a clance and nodded deciding to wait and see what happened, they passed the puddle, and...nothing happened; 'Hm, maybe some other travelers split some water?' Kakashi though having been sure that it was going to be some sort of ambush, the group walked on in a casual silence.

When they were far enough away the puddle morphed into two men with large claw gauntlets on their hands connected by a chain, metalic masks covering their faces; "This is bad we were expecting a little resistance, but Kakashi Hataki and Itachi Uchiha, plus brats. We can't do this alone, we need back up, we should tell Zabuza and Haku immediately." One of them said.

"Agreed."He brother said as they vanished in a different direction from the two teams.

* * *

 **-Zabuza Hideout-**

In a large Treehouse like structure, a man sat on a couch waiting. The Demon Brothers he figured would be more than enough to deal with the Bridge Builder or so he thought until they appeared in front of him bowing nervously; "Did you kill the bridge builder?" He asked in a gravely voice.

"No sir, the guard was better than we anticipated." One of them said.

"You couldn't handle a small team of shinobi!?" Zabuza asked reaching for the large sword at his side, but the other spoke quickly; "No sir, it wasn't the Genin there were two teams of them and the were lead by Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha sir!"

Zabuza forze thinking; "Is that so? Well then I guess the three of us willhave to check things out, Haku stay in the shadowsm in case." He said and Haku nodded as he stepped out.

* * *

 **-Meanwhile-**

Kakashi and Itachi's teams made sure to keep close to Tazuna as they made their way through the forest and soon came to a wetland area. As they traveled through the area they began to notice it was starting to become misty. Soon though, the mist began to form into a thick fog.

"Everybody stay close," Itachi ordered, drawing a kunai dagger.

"What's wrong, Itachi-Sensei?" Rei asked in confusion.

"What's wrong is that there's no way this is natural fog, it's some kind of Jutsu," Kakashi answered for the other Shinobi.

"Oh ho, smart aren't you though I'd expect nothing less from Itachi, the Uchiha clan prodigy." Said a low rumbling voice as the Genin all closed in around Tazuna.

"It doesn't take a prodigy to see this." Kakashi said.

"Of course." The voice said before they heard the faintest spinning sound and Kakashi and Itachi shoved them all down as a giant sword spun through the air and impaled itself into the tree.

Out of the mist came a man he was a tall and noticeably muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes, and small eyebrows. He was wearing bandages like a mask over the bottom half of his face. Under his mask, he had a relatively narrow jawline. He was shirtless, with his chest only covered by a belt to which he attached his sword he was wearing baggy pants with the striped pattern typical of Kirigakure and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers.

Kakashi and Itachi both recognized him immediately from the Bingo Book; "Zabuza Momochi." Itachi breathed calmly.

"The Demon of the hidden Mist, Tazuna you have explaining to do when this is over." Kakashi said glancing to Tazuna before cracking his neck and turning to Zabuza a hand on his headband; "You can't be thinking of taking us on alone." Itachi said.

"Who said that I was alone?" Zabuza said as out of the mist two men appeared; They had wild dark-brown hair and dark eyes. They wore rebreathers that covered the lower half of their faces and had large, clawed, poisonous gauntlets one had it on his left the other his right which had a chain coming out of it that had the other end attached to his brother's own gauntlet. They wore a camouflage suit with bandages around their waist, dark-coloured, knee-length sandals and several pouches around his waist and horns on their forehead protectors.

They took all this in as they made a bee line for the Genin and bridgebuilder

"Dodge!" Akira exclaimed, grabbing Tazuna and jumping out of the way along with the other Genin, who jumped in the opposite direction. The two men, rather than try to split up like Akira hoped they'd do, turned in the direction that he had jumped, heading right toward him.

Just before they could reach them however, Akira heard a voice call out.

 **"Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet),"** The voice called out as spikes of spiraling water erupted from the wetlands and crashed into the two men's chests, sending them crashing into the ground.

Turning around, Akira and Tazuna found Itachi with his right hand in the water about ten feet away from them.

"Come now Itachi, let the kids play." Zabuza said appearing behind Itachi who was forced to duck and dodged as Zabuza swung the large sword much faster. Itachi skidded away and stopped beside Kakashi; "Let them handle those two, they can do it we need to focus on him." Kakashi said and Itachi nodded and activated his Sharingan and Kakashi revealed his own.

"Ah, the sharingan from both of you this should be fun." Zabuza said creating several Water clones and charging forwards at them as they did the same.

* * *

 **-With the Genin-**

"You stay back, Tazuna let us deal with this Akira said as the other Genin closed in around the bridge builder and he fell into hand signs before stopping; **Fūton: Habataki hane!"** He said throwing several Kunai and shuriken before releasing a wave of wind from his mouth speeding them towards his opponents.

The two brothers blocked the oncoming shuriken and kunai using their arm guards, but were unprepared to have their faces kicked in by Naruto and Sasuke, sending them flying back.

"Nice kick," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Thanks. You too," Naruto replied as the brothers got back to their feet.

"It seems the brats have some fight in them, brother," One said.

"It seems so. Shall we show them how a real ninja fights?" The other asked.

"Gladly," The first replied.

They charged forwards their chain expanding between them as they got nearer Akira and Sasuke pulled several shuriken and threw them. Sasuke's headed towards the men who easily dodged. This however was the plan, as with them distracted they failed to notice Akira's shuriken that pinned the chain to a tree taking them off their feet and forcing them to detach the chain and separate.

Naruto and Rei were ready for one of them both falling into handsigns Rei finished first: **"Koton:** **Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique)."** She said releasing a stream of fire from her mouth towards the man as Naruto finished his own handsigns: Futon: Kaze no dangan (Wind Style: Wind Bullet)." He said releasing a concentrated blast of air and increasing her fires intensity.

The man dodged, but the hem of his cloak was caught in the fire.

Acting quickly, he spun on his heel and threw his cloak of in the direction of the two Genin, distracting them long enough for him to do his own hand signs.

 **"Suiton: Teppodama (Water Style: Gunshot)!"** He said, uncovering his mouth before firing a series of large water balls at the two Genin, who dodged out of the way, Rei by simply running and Naruto cartwheeling.

Meanwhile, with Sasuke and Akira, they had the ninja brother surrounded both in front and back. He tried to keep his focus on both of them, but couldn't keep them both in his line of sight.

As one Akira and Sasuke moved towards him sprinting at high speeds before. The man prepared himself for the assault and held out well against the two Genins punches and kicks.

"Enough of this!" He said lashing out and seizing both of them by the throat as they came in for the attack; "You both can't have really thought that would work on me!?" He demanded

"No, but we did think it would keep you busy enough to not notice the environment." Akira said smirking as he and Sasuke looked down, the man did too and that was when he noticed he was standing in a pool of; "Ink!?" He said confused.

"Exactly." Sai said calmly finishing his set of hand seals; _**Sumi Nagashi (Ink Flush)."**_ He said and out the ink rose a nest of large ink drawing snakes that swarmed around the man who dropped the two boys and began to try and fight them off, but when he would kill one two more woul seemingly rise to replace it.

As this was happening, Kakashi, Itachi, and Zabuza were going toe-to-toe with each other, neither one gaining any ground on the other. While it was difficult for Zabuza to fight in a two-on-one fight, he still managed to keep up with the two Jonin.

As Itachi and Kakashi were coming in for another round, Zabuza spun around on his heel, grasping the hilt of his overly-large sword, and swung it in a wide, spinning arc, the centripetal force helping him spin faster.

Just before they hit the spinning blade of death, Itachi spun around in midair, moving his body so that he was heading for Zabuza feet first while Kakashi re-calibrated himself so that he was heading for Zabuza's feet, below his blade.

Zabuza made an impressive move ducking his head and jumping to avoid each attack. Except for what he had not expected was for Itachi using his Sharingans ability to predict the move spun in mid air and slamming his fist into the back of Zabuza's head and sending him flying away with the impact of it.

Zabuza bounced off the ground a few times before righting himself standing on his feet, only to be met with Kakashi's foot smashing into his gut he felt the breath leave his lungs and bent forwards to be met by both Kakashi's knee's to his face sending him into the water.

He burst out glaring at the pair who stood on the shore nearby; "Give up now and this won't have to be your end." Itachi said speaking calmly his red and black Sharingan shinning from over the brim of his coat.

Zabuza smirked; 'Are you kidding I live for the battle and this is just the start!" He declared pulling himself from the water and using Chakra to stand on it.

He fell into hand sighs again as the mist began to cover the area; "I must admit I'm excited you all are more than I was ever expecting from such a simple mission. Let's see what you can really do." He said.

"Fall in around the bridge builder, now!" Itachi said as his team broke away after they had all tied the now unconscious brothers and fell in around the man.

"Defeated by mere children, the demon brothers must be loosing their touch or maybe your all better than you look, I guess we'll find out." Zabuza's voice said ringing out from seemingly everywhere

"Stay sharp and stay close. Don't let his illusions get to you," Kakashi said to the six genin.

"Then tell me, Kakashi," Zabuza's voice said from nowhere and everywhere, "Does THIS feel like an illusion?!" He yelled, appearing right in front of the silver-haired jonin, his giant sword raised high above his head and ready to bring it down on Kakashi.

He brought it apparently slicing solidly through the silver haired Jonin, only for 'Kakashi' to turn into water and fall at his feet; "Did you really think we were that foolish?" Kakashi asked emerging from the ground and seizing his opponents feet. Itachi came rushing over and slamming his feet into Zabuza's face sending him flying.

"No I didn't but I did need you to get away from the bridge builder." Zabuza said as one of his clones appeared between the Genin; "Time to die!" He shouted

"No you don't!" Sai exclaimed as he got between Zabuza's clone and the bridge builder as the clone brought its sword down, it slashing Sai across the chest.

"Sai!" The five other Genin yelled as they saw their teammate get injured. However, just as he was injured, Sai stabbed the clone in the throat with a kunai dagger he had hidden in his right hand, causing it to dissipate into water before Sai fell to the muddy ground, his chest bleeding profusely.

"Brave kids you got there, too bad about that one too foolish to know better than to stand against me." Zabuza said chuckling, but he had gone too far, Because Kakashi's eyes narrowed; "You just hurt one of my students, now I'm mad." Kakashi growled vanishing into the mist himself as Skaura fell to the ground beside Sai and started to inspect his wounds.

"Hold on Sai, your going to make it." She said her hands glowing green as she started to run them over the cut.

Meanwhile Zabuza was preparing for another attack when a voice came from behind him; "What do you think your going to do?" Kakashi asked as a kunai stabbed through Zabuza's shoulder, and Kakashi's hands seized his head and slammed his face into the tree before throwing him out into the open where Itachi kicked him in the jaw sending him flying

Just before he could right himself in midair, Zabuza was spin-kicked in the stomach by Kakashi, who had appeared from the mist once again before disappearing again as Zabuza landed in the wetland. Zabuza then struggled to get to his feet. As he did, he saw Itachi and Kakashi stand about fifteen feet away from him, glaring at him.

"I don't fear you Leaf Village fools. Time to show you my best technique," Zabuza said as he put his hands together, but was surprised when he saw that Itachi and Kakashi had done the same.

As he went through the handsigns for his Jutsu so did they and it gave him pause as another him seemed to appear behind them going through the signs too; "What the hell is this!?" H e thought.

Then they stopped before he even had finished and both of them spoke: _**Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)**_!" Two massive whirlpools came up out of the water and blasted Zabuza backwards at high speed and with great intensity. 'How could they have gotten to me before I could finish!?' He thought being through into a tree and then pinned to it by Kunai.

As he groaned in terrible pain at the kunai in his shoulder, he looked up to see Itachi and Kakashi standing before him, looking down at him.

"How? How did you know my technique before I could even do it? Can you two see the future?" He asked weakly.

"Yes, we can," Kakashi said in a low tone.

"You know what we see Zabuza?" Itachi asked, bringing out another kunai from his sleeve, "We see your demise," He said.

As he said that two needles came flying out of the air and imbeded themselves in his necak and Zabuza slumped forwards; "Well you were right, he's dead." Said a young voice as they both turned to see a young man standing in a tree not too far away.

He was dressed in the standard Kirigakure pinstriped outfit which stopped at his knees. Over this he wore a green haori with white trimmings, and around his waist a brown sash with a fringed trail wrapped around his waist twice. He also wore light-brown platoon sandals with straps in the same color as his kimono and nail polish on his fingernails and toenails in matching blue green color. His long hair was gathered in a white bun holder, while two locks of his hair fell loose framing his face, bound with metal hair cuffs at the ends. He wore a hunter-nin mask which was white with thin, curved eye-holes and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as the Kirigakure symbol etched in the top.

"He can't be much older than out Genin." Itachi thought

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke were staring at the kid in the tree in shock as Akira, and Sakura went over Sai making sure that he would at least be alright enough when he woke.

"He...he just killed Zabuza like it was nothing at all." Naruto muttered shocked as Kakashi spoke.

"From your mask, I'd guess your from the Kirigakure hunter nin corps right?" He asked as Itachi inspected Zabuza feeling no pulse; 'He really did just kill him, kids highly skilled.' Itachi thought carefully.

"You're correct I am a hunter nin I have been following Zabuza for a long while now waiting for the perfect chance to strike and you gave it to me I should thank you.' The boy said seriously

"Think nothing of it," Itachi said after getting back to his feet.

"If you all don't mind," The boy said, leaping down from the tree and walking over to Zabuza, "I'll be taking Zabuza and the Demon Brothers with me."

"Go right ahead. We have more important things to worry about now," Kakashi said, turning to Sai, who was no longer bleeding out thanks to Akira and Sakura.

"Thank you very much," The boy said as he put a firm hand on Zabuza before Sushining over to the Demon Brothers, grabbed the chin that bound them, and disappeared for good this time.

"What the hell!? What just happened, he he killed him! Just like that, Zabuza was so strong and he just killed him like it was nothing! How does that make any sense, he's our age and yet he's so much stronger! How...how're we supposed to deal with that?" Naruto sighed looking at the ground knowing Sai was alright as Kakashi went to check on him Itachi stopped and set a hand on Naruto's shoulders.

"That's the world of a shinobi Naruto, it doesn't always make the most sense, but sometimes there exist kids younger or the same age as you, but that are stronger than Kakashi." He said smirking.

"Hey, wait why me specifically?" Kakashi asked asked as Itachi smirked and it even got a smile out of Naruto.

"Because, you haven't been training as hard as you could have been, so now you get to be the example in this." Itachi said cassually as Kakashi pulled his headband back down and picked up Sai; "Whatever, looks like the kids going to be okay he'll need rest of course we chould keep moving." He said and they all nodded.

Itachi let the group get ahead of them before he set a hand on Tazuna's shoulder; "You have some explaining to do, one of our Genin got seriously injured in your defense and you were attacked by high ranking missing nin. When we get there you are going to explain or us and our teams are going to go home." He said in a dark voice.

Swallowing a lump that formed in his throat, Tazuna nodded in comprehension before Itachi followed his team.

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 **A/N: So that's it for this chapter ladies and Gentleman, we hope you liked the chapter leave a review, fav or follow if you like and we'll see you next chapter!**


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